A nuclear paradox: EnergySolutions CEO is attempting to change opinions on radioactive waste
The whole western sky would have a green glow for several weeks after the tests, Creamer recalls. In the summer when his family would drive along the highway to Zion National Park, state troopers would warn drivers to roll up their windows to avoid inhaling the fumes from the green smoke that was blowing over the area.
At the time, they had little understanding of how profoundly their lives would be affected by those plumes of toxic smoke. Years later, Creamer's father died of lymphoma that his son believes may have been a result of those days downwind of the atomic testing range.
Steve Creamer says his work at EnergySolutions, a nuclear-waste disposal and management company, was motivated by his family's experience as downwinders.
"My dad died at the same age I am right now: 56," he says. "My mother and my family will always believe that we were affected by 'the downwinder's,' and what we're trying to do is keep that from happening again. What we do is clean up things like that, we handle them safely, we transport them safely."
The EnergySolutions facility in Clive, 70 miles west of Salt Lake City, handles more than 95 percent of all commercial low-level radioactive waste in the United States, according to the Government Accountability Office. The company also now has processing sites in Utah, Tennessee, South Carolina and the United Kingdom.
EnergySolutions communications director Mark Walker describes his boss as driven: "You can't outwork him, and you'll never get to the office before him."
Expanding a company
This past November, Creamer took the company public, offering 11.85 million shares at $19 to $21 per share. The company's controlling stockholder, ENV Holdings LLC, offered 18.15 million shares. Since then, the company's shares have traded in the range of $22.75 to $28.45 per share.
Creamer has also been working to expand the company's holdings and contracts. In December, EnergySolutions won a $900 million deal with Exelon Corp. to dismantle the Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois. EnergySolutions will decommission two reactors and all other structures on the 257-acre site with completion projected for 2018, and then return the land to Exelon.
Recent comments
I work at the Clive facility. I know that what we do here is safe…
Theron Taylor | Jan. 14, 2008 at 1:10 p.m.
When you really consider our options we should be happy with what…
Nichol Draper | Jan. 13, 2008 at 7:41 a.m.
